Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Publius

Born: 236-XX-XX BCE

Died: 183-XX-XX BCE Roman Empire

Flourished: Roman Empire

Roman consul and general Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was born in 236 BCE. In 210, during the Second Punic War, he was placed in command of Roman forces in Spain, and was elected consul in 205. Despite opposition in the Roman Senate, he sought and was granted permission to carry the war against Carthage into Africa. He landed in Africa in 204, and after about two years of intermittent hostilities, he defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama and peace was concluded on terms dictated by Rome. In recognition of his success, Scipio was given the cognomen of Africanus. He died at his villa in Liternum (now Lago di Patria, Italy) in 183.

Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, eds., The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. rev. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 398, 875.